The Best Canopy Tent for Camping and Picnics Reviews by Wirecutter

This shelter employs high-grade, collapsible aluminum poles for its frame and comes complete with built-in guy lines and sandbags to help keep it sturdy. The polyester canopy effectively dampens the sun’s rays and is double-stitched and weather-taped to keep out the rain. The Clam Quick-Set Escape was by far the toughest canopy tent we tested.

After all, you can find plenty of smaller and less-expensive items to help you fight bugs, guard against the sun, and shrug off rain. Our favorite canopy tent is a simply designed, comfortable ozark trail screen house shelter that offers protection from bugs, sun, and rain. The legs are locked into place with old school metal push button locks, something you won’t see on many modern pop up tents now-a-days.

Overall, this is a fun beach accessory that is great for guarding gear and valuables and offering periodic shelter from the sun. Our shade-loving experts poured over hundreds of the best canopy tents available before choosing 14 for side-by-side testing. We selected products best suited for farmer’s markets, corporate gigs, and beaches. ozark trail screen house We also chose canopies optimized for camping, spectator sports, and adventure. From there, we tested each product for several months in Utah and California, subjecting them to sun, wind, and rain. All the while, we assessed key performance metrics such as functionality, ease of setup, protection, craftsmanship, and portability.

ozark trail canopy

Our versatile Ozark Trail 10′ x 20′ Canopy provides the protection you need for your next event. The innovative frame is powder coated steel with central hub locks for the frame and push button locking height adjustments. The 300D polyester top provides UV protection and is water and fire resistant. Four included walls have mesh panels with curtains and one of the two end walls rolls up for easy access under the canopy. The canopy folds down to 48.75″ in length and easily fits into the sleeve bag with a pocket for the walls, stakes and guy ropes. The Eureka Tagalong scored slightly lower but still boasted an impressive score.

The Screen House Shelter packs into a reasonably roomy drawstring bag with a strap that makes the canopy tent much easier to transport than tents, like the L.L.Bean, that lack a strap. We eliminated canopies that were not big enough to comfortably shelter a picnic table, concluding that a table is probably the number-one spot where campers would place such a structure. We also eliminated bulky, heavy shelters that are intended to be used as semipermanent backyard fixtures. Compared with our top day-tent pick, the L.L.Bean Woodlands Screen House uses arguably superior materials; it also comes with an unsurpassed warranty.